Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Of course the toughest part is that I don't have a camera.

My herp club is trying to identify this adoptee before placing it. The previous owner most likely bought it from a petstore in central Canada, and refered to it as a Texas checkered garter snake.

Here's my description. I hope it's detailed enough for you.

Several years old, this animal is approx. 14 inches long, whether stunted or not, is unknown. It is an handsome individual, army green with distinct, crisp black checkers along both flanks. They mostly meet on the dorsum, almost to make a saddle, if not for the yellow vertebral stripe. There is a lateral white stripe on the 3rd row of scales up from the ventral scutes. The tongue is red, with a black tip. Labials 4 and 5 (counted from the front) touch the eye. The underbelly is cream, bordered in white, and the ventral scales are divided after the vent. The anal plate was not very descript.

Any shots at the species and subspecies for this one? Any links to a speciation list?

Thanks,
Ian

First of all I'm no expert, but I play one on the internet. There is a checkered garter snake, Thamnophis marcianas marcianas, and there is a Texas garter snake as well, Thamnophis sirtalis annectens.(ref. Texas Snakes, Werler and Dixon) Both are found in Texas, so if your checkered came from Texas I suppose it would be a Texas Checkered Garter Snake. Without seeing a picture, it's very difficult for me to say which snake you have, if either. My suggestion is to do a search (google or yahoo) for both species and find a pic to see if you recognize the snake you have you have. Below are a couple pics of my checkered garters, normal(het) and albino

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1.1 Jungle Carpet Python (both gorgeous)
1.1 Ball Python (normals, he said proudly)
1.1 Ball Python (het for albino)(gonna make my own albino)
1.1 Corn Snake (Okeetee, Sunglow x Snow)
0.1 Gray band Kingsnake (Blairs)
1.1 Desert Kingsnake
1.1 Pueblan Milksnake (normal)(Apricot)
1.1 Andean Milksnake (Inca phase) (het)
0.0.1 Bullsnake (my garbage disposal snake)
0.1 Black Pine Snake need '05 mate!
1.1 Southern Snow Pine (snow)(red phase snow)
3.3 hatchling ball pythons
1.2 Checkered garter snakes, albino pair & het female
1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback (Hondo)
0.1 Spouse (WC)(hates herps,and not real crazy about dog)

Thanks for your quick, and awesome reply. Your photos were a great help. What species is your normal phase snake? (the annectens or the marianas?) I think that's the one, but will also do a google to verify as well with some closer photos.

Thanks again,
Ian

if you have trouble finding stuff on google, you can always try looking at Scott Felzers site. He has pics of many of the garter species and that might be of some help. check it out:
www.gartersnakemorphs.com
Link

Both of those snake pics I sent are of the checkered garter snake, Thamnophis maricianas marcianas.

-----
1.1 Jungle Carpet Python (both gorgeous)
1.1 Ball Python (normals, he said proudly)
3.3 hatchling ball pythons (normals)
1.1 Ball Python (het for albino)(gonna make my own albino)
1.1 Corn Snake (Okeetee, Sunglow x Snow)
0.1 Gray band Kingsnake (Blairs)
1.1 Desert Kingsnake
1.1 Pueblan Milksnake (normal)(Apricot)
1.1 Andean Milksnake (Inca phase) (het)
0.0.1 Bullsnake (normal)(my garbage disposal snake)
1.1 Bullsnake (red bull) and (het red bull)
0.1 Black Pine Snake need '05 mate!
1.1 Southern Snow Pine (snow)(red phase snow)
1.2 Checkered garter snakes, albino pair & het female
1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback (Hondo)
0.1 Spouse (WC)(hates herps,and not real crazy about dog)

Okay, so the google search revealed a super awesome site. Zipcodezoo.com. It's amazing. Every animal under the sun listed by latin name. The "t" page was so large I stopped loading it when it came to the thamnophis. Literally thousands upon thousands of animals; birds, beetles, and herps. Every name opens to include the description of the animal from kingdom to subspecies. It also has references, and will google pictures and websites on the species for you.

Now... my snake was a checkered garter snake thamnophis marcianus marcianus. Apparently the "checkered garter snake" is T. marcianus, while the subspecies in the western range is the Marcy's Checkered garter snake and is T. m. marcianus. There are slight colour differences, but it's hard to say what the exact difference is, since the viability of the pictures belonging to any particular subspecies rests on that site builder.

Something to ponder anyways, thanks ya'll it was fun

Ian